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Force Majeure
Force Majeure is the third episode of Season 2 of CBS' Under the Dome, which aired on July 14th, 2014. It is the sixteenth episode overall. Summary As resources dwindle, Big Jim holds a census in order to forecast how long Chester's Mill can continue to exist under the dome, while chaos ensues when a rainstorm turns into acid rain. Synopsis Barbie finds Melanie going through his things. She feels like she knows him. Julia interrupts and thinks Barbie is interrogating the girl, but he's not buying the "baby bird act". "I just want you to be more careful about bring strays into our house," he says. "Let's not forget the last stray I brought in was you," she says. Big Jim sits for a hot shave in Lyle Chumley's barber shop. Lyle has a history with Jim's late wife, Pauline. Jim mentions his interest in the teacher, Rebecca Pine. Everyone heads to the café for Jim's registration. Rebecca asks Joe and Norrie to set up a wind turbine based on a classroom experiment she did. Melanie goes with them. Julia chafes at Rebecca's bossiness. Out at his uncle's cabin, Junior is wracked with guilt thinking he killed Angie. Sam tells Junior that his mom had blackouts, too, and sometimes going to where she was when it happened jogged her memory. At the café, they notice rain and head out with buckets to catch it, but it's raining blood. At the school, Melanie sticks her hand into the raining blood and gets burned. At the café, Lyle thinks the blood is a Biblical plague, but Rebecca has a sample she wants to analyze at the school. She theorizes it's from the lake, polluted by the fertilizer they sprayed. Sam joins them and he, Barbie and Julia head out to look for people stuck in the acid blood rain. At the high school, Joe, Norrie and Melanie run into Junior retracing his steps. In his car with Rebecca, Jim wonders if the rain is a test of his leadership, but Rebecca thinks there's an answer. Suddenly, Rebecca notices someone in the street in front of them. Jim swerves to avoid him and hits a tree. The stranger reaches in, grabs Jim and throws him out then drives off with Rebecca. Jim huddles under a tree and radios for help. At the high school, Joe plugs in his tablet to review his notes on the windmill project. He notices he has an internet connection and checks his email. There's a message from his dad, telling him to take care of Angie. He wonders whether to tell them she's dead. Melanie caresses Joe's face and tells him, "We'll figure it out, sweetie." Norrie gets jealous and annoyed, then urges Junior to check his. He has a message with the subject "I can help you, James" with a link to a "houndsofdiana" URL. He clicks on it, and a screen asks him his mother's birthday. Barbie and Julia find Jim unconscious under the tree in the rain. Rebecca wakes up tied to a chair to find Lyle keeping her captive. He thinks if Jim is "righteous", the rain will spare him. Lyle doesn't want to stop the rain and, he tells Rebecca, neither does the dome. "There's a new god in Chester's Mill, it surrounds and embraces us all. It's gonna show no mercy to infidels," Lyle says. Barbie gets Jim back at the café, where he's able to croak out that Lyle took Rebecca. Lyle comes back inside the cement factory carrying a bowl of the toxic rain and telling her he can't have her interfering with the coming rapture. Back at the school, Junior enters his mother's birthday and is taken to a video of his mother, Pauline. She tells him she's alive and hopes to see him again, but in the mean time, if he needs answers, he should talk to Lyle and only Lyle. The video cuts out as they all lose internet. Junior throws on a raincoat and goes looking for Lyle. At Lyle's barbershop, Barbie and Julia debate the nature of people, with arguing they're good and Barbie arguing they need a firm hand to keep them in line. He finds a picture marked Summer '88, of Lyle, Sam and Pauline. Julia radios Sam, who tells her Lyle and Pauline were dating then. Junior joins them, offering to help. He recognizes the location of the picture. At the high school, Joe theorizes the magnetism made a worm hole for the internet to get through. He, Melanie and Norrie go look for it. At the café, Jim doesn't understand why Sam saved him. Sam explains he's not going to let Jim die -- yet. At the cement factory, Lyle pours acid rain on Rebecca, who quickly tells him everything he wants to hear. But he doesn't believe her. He pulls out a gun, but doesn't get anywhere because Barbie and Junior bust in with guns. He holds a gun to Rebecca's head and they lower their guns. Julia tells Lyle about the dome speaking to her and Rebecca works to free her hands from the rope. Julia tells Lyle she's working to understand what the dome wants. She asks Lyle to lower his gun and he's doing it when Rebecca gets her hands free. She grabs the acid rain bowl and splashes it in his face. Barbie grabs him. Julia is angry at Rebecca and asks why she did it when he was about to surrender. Rebecca gives her a death glare. Joe follows the internet signal to the locker with Angie's bloodied hand on it. Melanie tells Joe not to be afraid and gets close enough to him that Norrie steps between them and tells her to back off. Melanie puts her and over the bloody print and then opens the locker using the combination. The internet signal disappears when they open it. It's empty, but Norrie only wants to know how Melanie knew the combination. Rebecca oversees efforts to spray something into the lake to counter-act the toxic algae she believes it causing the acid rain. Rebecca goes to see Jim, telling him she stopped the rain, not the dome. She tells him some "tough decisions" have to be made about the town. At the high school, Norrie confronts Melanie, getting in her face for answers. Melanie insists she just "saw" the combination. Joe finally intercedes when Norrie won't back down, suggesting he has answers. At the café, Rebecca explains crops and livestock died in the rain. She says it may become necessary to "selectively thin the herd". Julia looks at the survey and sees it has detailed medical questions. She gets angry and storms out, demanding Barbie follow her. He tries to explain Rebecca's plan is just a contingency, but Julia is irate. She wants him to stand with her against Jim and Rebecca, but Barbie can't ignore the limited amount of food. When Julia says she believes they'll find a way, Barbie says belief only gets you so far. Alone in his jail cell, an acid-scarred Lyle sings "Who'll Stop the Rain?" He gets a visitor. "I was wondering when you'd show up. Aren't you afraid people will see us together?" Lyle says. It's Sam. "The building's empty. I could kill you and no one would know -- nobody'd care," Sam says. Sam reminds Lyle he told him to lay low and that 25 years ago they agreed to keep something hidden. Lyle tells him that contract is void from the force majeure of the dome. Junior watches them on security camera, but can't hear them. Rebecca explains her position to Jim, saying they're already low on food, but three-quarters of the population could survive on what they have, he just has to determine who's a burden and who's an asset. Junior drops in on Lyle, looking for answers on Angie. Lyle agrees to tell him everything if Junior lets him go. At the high school, Joe looks up a record of people who have had the locker in the past 50 years. Melanie picks out the name Melanie Cross. Joe pulls out the yearbook from 1988 and finds picture of Melanie the same age she is now. Credits Main Cast *Mike Vogel as Dale "Barbie" Barbara *Rachelle Lefevre as Julia Shumway *Alexander Koch as James "Junior" Rennie *Eddie Cahill as Sam Verdreaux *Colin Ford as Joseph "Joe" McAlister *Nicholas Strong as Philip "Phil" Bushey *MacKenzie Lintz as Eleanor "Norrie" Calvert-Hill *Karla Crome as Rebecca Pine *Dean Norris as James "Big Jim" Rennie Supporting Cast Guest Stars *Grace Victoria Cox as Melanie Cross *Sherry Stringfield as Pauline Rennie *Dwight Yoakam as Lyle Chumley Uncredited *Harold Walker as Diner Patron *Unknown as Darren Collins (Photograph) *Unknown as Susan Collins (Photograph) *Unknown as Michael Charles (Photograph) *Unknown as Rosa Clayton (Photograph) Deaths *None Trivia *First appearance of Lyle Chumley. *Lyle appears to have been based off of Lester Coggins from Season 1 *The title Force Majeure is a french term which means "superior force" which is a common clause in contracts that essentially frees both parties from liability or obligation when an extraordinary event or circumstance beyond the control of the parties prevents one or both parties from fulfilling their obligations under the contract. **This refers to Sam's and Lyle's agreement 25 years ago and how superior force (The Dome) freed Lyle from this obligation. *This is the first episode in the entire series that contains no co-stars. *This is the first time in consecutive episodes that doesn't feature a character dying. *Differently from The Endless Thirst or Speak of the Devil the acid rain is not caused by the Domes direct influence but because of Barbie spraying fertilizer over the lake. *This is the first time Barbie and Melanie's connection is referenced. Category:Episodes Category:Season 2